Explain the importance of the following events to the history of English:
Middle English Period:
Key Historical Events: Why were these events important? How did they influence the evolution of the English language?
Battle of Hastings
King John and the loss of Normandy
Henry III and his marriage to Eleanor of Provence
The Hundred Years War
The Black Plague
William Caxton and The Printing Press
How did the language change during the Middle English period? Simple or more complex? What factors influence this change? What are examples of this change?
Describe how the Middle English Period was a trilingual era. How is this trilingualism exhibited in the writings of Chaucer and others?
Early Modern English Period:
What is the Great Vowel Shift? What vowels did it affect? Be able to fill in a chart with the changes, and be able to transform pre-GVS words into their Modern English versions.
Dictionaries--Why were dictionaries so important and popular at this time? Who was Samuel Johnson? What did he do? What was the impact of his dictionary?
Prescriptivism--Why were so many grammar books being written at this time? What were the reasons/sources for many of the rules that these grammar books included?
Explain the influence of Protestantism, the English language Bible, and English prayer books.
Explain the Inkhorn terms vs. Chaucerisms controvesy.
What were sources of new words borrowed into the English language?
How did 2nd person pronouns evolve during this period?
Late Modern English Period:
How did British imperialism lead to the development of Kachru's three circles of English?
Differences between American English and British English
Attitudes of British English speakers toward American English speakers.
Who was Noah Webster? What did he do? What was his goal? What was the impact of his dictionary?
Black English: What is it? Why does it exist? What influence has it had?
Presentations:
Explain the key points that you wanted to present about your presentation.
Explain the key ideas that you learned from other presentations. I'll have some choices for you.
Language Change:
How do words change due to:
Generalization
Specialization
Transfer of Meaning through Metaphor, Association of Ideas, Transfer from other languages, and Sound Association
Pejoration
Amelioration
Taboo & Euphemism
How do words enter the English language through these 6 processes:
Creating
Combining
Shortening
Blending
Shifting
Transfer of Meaning
Can you identify what language change mechanisms are present in some words new to our internet age. For example, look at these words:
google: Can you google this word for me?
selfie: Let's take a selfie together. (from self portrait)
lol: I lolled when I saw your post to Facebook.
like: How many likes did your post get?
OMG, lmao: OMG, that's so funny, lmao.
phablet: Samsung is coming out with a new Galaxy Note phablet soon.
mansplaining: Mansplaining is the social behavior or phenomenon whereby men patronizingly explain something simple to a woman, under the assumption that she would not already know it because she is a woman.
humblebrag: To say something self-deprecating that is really bragging. "I felt so stupid when I was at TaiDa medical school because my classmates were all so smart." "I can't believe I sounded like such a idiot on TV last night"
POTUS/FLOTUS/SCOTUS: The FLOTUS is going to join the POTUS in making a speech before the SCOTUS ruling is announced.
cronut: You have to try this cronut. It's delicious.
inspo: "An oversized fedora is a) more chic, and b) less annoying for everyone else. See Naomi Watts for inspo." (from inspiration)
cloud: I have that filed stored in the cloud. I'll download it right now.
Final Exam Study Questions
Explain the importance of the following events to the history of English:
Middle English Period:
Key Historical Events: Why were these events important? How did they influence the evolution of the English language?
How did the language change during the Middle English period? Simple or more complex? What factors influence this change? What are examples of this change?
Describe how the Middle English Period was a trilingual era. How is this trilingualism exhibited in the writings of Chaucer and others?
Early Modern English Period:
What is the Great Vowel Shift? What vowels did it affect? Be able to fill in a chart with the changes, and be able to transform pre-GVS words into their Modern English versions.Dictionaries--Why were dictionaries so important and popular at this time? Who was Samuel Johnson? What did he do? What was the impact of his dictionary?
Prescriptivism--Why were so many grammar books being written at this time? What were the reasons/sources for many of the rules that these grammar books included?
Explain the influence of Protestantism, the English language Bible, and English prayer books.
Explain the Inkhorn terms vs. Chaucerisms controvesy.
What were sources of new words borrowed into the English language?
How did 2nd person pronouns evolve during this period?
Late Modern English Period:
How did British imperialism lead to the development of Kachru's three circles of English?
Differences between American English and British English
Attitudes of British English speakers toward American English speakers.
Who was Noah Webster? What did he do? What was his goal? What was the impact of his dictionary?
Black English: What is it? Why does it exist? What influence has it had?
Presentations:
Explain the key points that you wanted to present about your presentation.Explain the key ideas that you learned from other presentations. I'll have some choices for you.
Language Change:
How do words change due to:
How do words enter the English language through these 6 processes:
Can you identify what language change mechanisms are present in some words new to our internet age. For example, look at these words:
google: Can you google this word for me?
selfie: Let's take a selfie together. (from self portrait)
lol: I lolled when I saw your post to Facebook.
like: How many likes did your post get?
OMG, lmao: OMG, that's so funny, lmao.
phablet: Samsung is coming out with a new Galaxy Note phablet soon.
mansplaining: Mansplaining is the social behavior or phenomenon whereby men patronizingly explain something simple to a woman, under the assumption that she would not already know it because she is a woman.
humblebrag: To say something self-deprecating that is really bragging. "I felt so stupid when I was at TaiDa medical school because my classmates were all so smart." "I can't believe I sounded like such a idiot on TV last night"
POTUS/FLOTUS/SCOTUS: The FLOTUS is going to join the POTUS in making a speech before the SCOTUS ruling is announced.
cronut: You have to try this cronut. It's delicious.
inspo: "An oversized fedora is a) more chic, and b) less annoying for everyone else. See Naomi Watts for inspo." (from inspiration)
cloud: I have that filed stored in the cloud. I'll download it right now.